Long may they run: the F59s stage a comeback in Toronto

In June in Toronto, I was thrilled to see an old warhorse F59 commuter engine continuing to pull GO Train consists in and out of Union Station. These old engines, which were built for GO Transit at the old GM Diesel plant in London, Ont. from 1990 to 1994, had been disappearing from the GO Transit roster for years, replaced by newer, sleeker MP40s and MP54s. This shot below was taken behind the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. I mentioned in a post last summer that I would miss the F59s, which seemed to be dwindling down to a last precious few on the roster. I was lucky enough last June to catch an old F59 pulling a consist out of Kitchener for its daily morning run east to Union Station. It was after that post when I received this message from a reader. GO bought F59s from Los Angeles Metrolink and they are sitting in North Bay for rebuild so, by the looks of things, the last days in green of that loco type is some time away. I suspect the idea is to add to the power pool as newer…

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